The legendary Russian Tea Room restaurant at 150 West 57th Street will reopen Wednesday, but previously reported plans to expand the mid-block, low-rise building up to 29 floors with the addition of 17 apartments are no longer clear.
An article in the February 1, 2006 edition of The New York Post by Louise Kramer maintained that "the owner of the Russian Tea Room plans to build a luxury residential high-rise atop the famed eatery, which shut down in 2002." The article said that RTR Funding Group has won approval from the Department of Buildings to expand the building and that the expansion would be designed by Costas Kondylis & Partners.
Gerald Lieblich, who was involved in the renovation of the Loew's Paradise Theater in the Bronx, is the president of RTR Funding and he told CityRealty.com today that he had "no comment" on building plans.
His company bought the property for about $19 million last year from the United States Golf Association, which had acquired it for about $16 million from the heirs of the late Warner LeRoy who had spend about $30 million in renovating the restaurant in 1999. The restaurant closed in 2002.
Mr. Lieblich said that the restaurant will retain much of the flamboyant d¿r installed by Mr. LeRoy, who also operated the Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park.
The restaurant opened in late 1920s and in the 1940s, it was acquired by Sidney Kaye. His widow, Faith Stewart-Gordon, ran it for three decades, turning down offers to purchase it from Harry Macklowe, the developer, and Rockrose Development, both of whom built major skyscrapers on either side of it.
An article by Christopher Gray in the September 11, 1988 edition of The New York Times stated that the building was "built as a private house in 1875 by a tea and coffee merchant," and "was later converted into apartments and stores and since the 1920's it has housed the Russian Tea Room."
According to the article, John F. Pupke acquired the lot in 1873 when he built a two-story stable and coachman's dwelling on the 56th Street side, adding a four-story brownstone on the 57th Street side of the lot in 1876 designed by John G. Prague. Around 1900, the building, Mr. Gray's article continued, "was occupied by Mrs. William Eustis Munroe's School for Girls for a few years and then studio apartments. In 1919, the year the Pupke estate finally sold the house, the stoop was removed to allow for stores on the ground floor."
The restaurant was originally a tea room with wicker furniture and silhouettes of ballet dancers on the wall in the 1920s, according to Mr. Gray, but would become one of the city's most fabled celebrity haunts after World War II.
There are two other new building projects on narrow sites on the 57th Street block between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue.
An article in the February 1, 2006 edition of The New York Post by Louise Kramer maintained that "the owner of the Russian Tea Room plans to build a luxury residential high-rise atop the famed eatery, which shut down in 2002." The article said that RTR Funding Group has won approval from the Department of Buildings to expand the building and that the expansion would be designed by Costas Kondylis & Partners.
Gerald Lieblich, who was involved in the renovation of the Loew's Paradise Theater in the Bronx, is the president of RTR Funding and he told CityRealty.com today that he had "no comment" on building plans.
His company bought the property for about $19 million last year from the United States Golf Association, which had acquired it for about $16 million from the heirs of the late Warner LeRoy who had spend about $30 million in renovating the restaurant in 1999. The restaurant closed in 2002.
Mr. Lieblich said that the restaurant will retain much of the flamboyant d¿r installed by Mr. LeRoy, who also operated the Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park.
The restaurant opened in late 1920s and in the 1940s, it was acquired by Sidney Kaye. His widow, Faith Stewart-Gordon, ran it for three decades, turning down offers to purchase it from Harry Macklowe, the developer, and Rockrose Development, both of whom built major skyscrapers on either side of it.
An article by Christopher Gray in the September 11, 1988 edition of The New York Times stated that the building was "built as a private house in 1875 by a tea and coffee merchant," and "was later converted into apartments and stores and since the 1920's it has housed the Russian Tea Room."
According to the article, John F. Pupke acquired the lot in 1873 when he built a two-story stable and coachman's dwelling on the 56th Street side, adding a four-story brownstone on the 57th Street side of the lot in 1876 designed by John G. Prague. Around 1900, the building, Mr. Gray's article continued, "was occupied by Mrs. William Eustis Munroe's School for Girls for a few years and then studio apartments. In 1919, the year the Pupke estate finally sold the house, the stoop was removed to allow for stores on the ground floor."
The restaurant was originally a tea room with wicker furniture and silhouettes of ballet dancers on the wall in the 1920s, according to Mr. Gray, but would become one of the city's most fabled celebrity haunts after World War II.
There are two other new building projects on narrow sites on the 57th Street block between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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